Exercise is a scary word to many people. Most people think of a fitness program of something boring and painful and avoid it at all costs. However, exercise is very important for your body and it can be fun, too! Read on for some tips on staying fit and having fun!
If you want to get into shape, the best thing you can do is to combine different types of exercises. To get the most out of your time you want to work all your different muscle groups. Do arm exercises, leg exercises, and cardio exercises on a regular basis to make sure that you entire body gets a good work out.
Buy several sets of exercise clothes making sure one item matches all of the rest. Why spend time searching through your closet and drawers for something that matches when you could be using that time to exercise? No one really cares what you are wearing so base your exercise clothing choices on convenience rather than vanity.
Exercising properly in order to stay active and lose weight does not mean you have to go out and buy fancy equipment or join a gym. Some of the best exercises you can possibly do can be performed with nothing but your body. Think about toe-touches, sit-ups, push-ups, crunches, jumping-jacks, and even jogging in place.
Increase the size of your back by performing break cable rows in two portions. Begin the rows by grabbing the bar with your arms outstretched and making sure you are squeezing both of your shoulder blades together. After that, begin pulling the bar towards your body for maximum results to your back.
When trying to increase the muscles in your legs, a good way to do this is to try some lunges. Put barbells in each hand of any weight, and take a knee then extend your other leg out and take a knee with the other leg. This builds leg muscles.
Use the down time in between strength training sets to do a gentle stretch targeting the muscles that were just in use. The stretches should last for about half a minute. Those who stretched between sets are shown to increase their strength by 20 percent. Stretching is also an easy way to prevent unnecessary strains.
A good fitness tip is to start performing shoulder shrugs. Shoulder shrugs are a great way to beef up your trapezoid muscles. Your trapezoid muscles are located on your collarbone. Shoulder shrugs are very easy to perform but as always, it’s not a good idea to lift more weight than you can handle.
A great fitness tip is to perform good mornings. Good mornings are a great exercise that focuses on your lower back and your hamstrings. You simply put a barbell on your shoulders, then slowly bend forward. It’s important that you don’t arch your back or else you could get a hernia.
A great workout tip is to perform dips. Dips can work out both your triceps and your chest. To hit the triceps you should do dips with elbows in and your body straight. To hit the chest you should lean forward and flare your elbows out. You will feel a great pump at the end.
Archery can be a way for one to work on their fitness while having fun and learning a new skill at the same time. The repetitive drawing of the bow’s string will work ones upper body. Drawing with each arm will ensure that both sides get exercise. The walking to retrieve arrows will also has fitness benefits.
Do not be a single-machine user. Exercising in many different forms is the best way to do strength training, even if you want to focus on one part of your body. Overall strength and health is more important than getting bigger biceps, so try your best to be as diverse as possible.
Always stretch before doing exercise. If you are over the age of 40, then you should hold your stretches for 60 seconds each, as opposed to thirty seconds. This is because your muscles are not as pliable after you reach 40, so they should be stretched a little more.
As you get older, you need to devote more time to stretch during warm-ups and cool-downs. Your body’s muscles become more stiff as you age. This is irritating but unavoidable. Fortunately you can take steps to counteract the effect by holding each of your stretch positions a little longer, as you get older.
Even after you get comfortable and experienced with your fitness routine, you should limit intense weight training workouts to no more than an hour at a time. When your muscles are subjected to extreme stress, your body begins producing cortisol. This is a hormone that interferes with your body’s testosterone balance and reduces or eliminates the benefits of continued weight training.
Make sure that in the initial stages of planning your fitness routine to level off your expectations. If you set your goals too high, you will be putting yourself in a position for a letdown, which could reduce the motivation that you have and curtail the goals that you want to achieve.
If there is a particular exercise you hate doing, chances are this exercise is a weak spot for you. Force yourself to perform exercises that target your weak spots no matter how much you hate them. Before long you will find yourself enjoying them more and more while achieving a stronger body.
Staying fit isn’t so hard when you know what you can do to be fit and enjoy yourself while you do it! Now that you know how fun fitness can be, why not start now? Make an exercise program that suits you and soon you’ll be looking and feeling better.
